Director: George Miller
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz
Certificate: 15
Special Features: Maximum Fury: Filming Fury Road / Mad Max: Fury on Four Wheels / The Road Warriors: Max & Furiosa / The Tools of the Wasteland / The Five Wives: So Shiny, So Chrome / Fury Road: Crash & Smash / Deleted Scenes
‘My world is fire, and blood’ we hear a battle-hardened Tom Hardy croak, as the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Mad Max: Fury Road unfolds on the screen before us. And he’s not wrong – what follows is 120 minutes of gut-wrenching, face-to-the-floor action that drags the viewer along for the ride on what will surely be the most astonishing, relentless, and downright insane film you will see this year.
Mad Max – the franchise originally kickstarted by fresh-face medical school graduate George Miller out on the dusty plains of Australia – has come a long way since it’s inception back in 1979. Introducing a still wet-behind-the-ears Mel Gibson to cinema goers around the world, the original movie shocked audiences with a unique brand of outlandish vehicular violence that was somehow achieved on just a shoestring budget. The incredible success and spirit of the film helped to spawn two sequels, and now, after a lengthy absence from the big screen, everyone’s favourite Lone Wolf returns in Mad Max: Fury Road, helmed by original director George Miller, to show everyone just how much fun four wheels and an engine can be.
With this instalment, George Miller follows Max on what could be fairly called a pretty bad day in post-apocalyptic 2060. Ambushed and kidnapped by a feral tribal gang known as the War Boys, Max is taken back to the mysterious mountain stronghold of the Citadel – a baked pile of dry rock that plays home to the bloated dictator-cum-deity Immortan Joe, and his loyal cult of starving subjects. Here, Max becomes embroiled in the noble getaway scheme of loyalist-turned-liberator Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, as she takes off with the Immortans War Rig, and his treasured five brides in tow. What follows can only be described as sheer motor-powered insanity, as Joe sets off in hot pursuit, flanked by an army of monstrous vehicles, allied gangs, and even a maniacal guitarist kicking out jams through a portable PA system that would have Metallica reaching for their ear plugs.
Thanks to the numerous trailers and clips surging across the internet, you invariably go into Mad Max: Fury Road with a certain level of expectation. Safe to say, those expectations are completely blown through the roof – this is the action film you have been waiting for. From the very first moment, the movie grabs you by the scruff of the neck and doesn’t let go – car chases careen into fist fights, fist fights swing into foot pursuits, and foot pursuits very hastily climb back into their super charged monster trucks and kick start the car chases again. The pace simply does not let up, and carries the viewer through the scorched remains of outback Australia at such a breathless pace that it occasionally takes a conscious effort to blink.
The action is so all-encompassing that it can be easy not to notice that Max himself becomes somewhat of a supporting character to it. Grumbling his way through the occasional line, Tom Hardy‘s Max steps back to allow the film to focus on the world it creates, rather than the character himself. The result is a beautiful snapshot of a world gone mad, that allows the viewer to revel in the mythology that director George Miller has painstakingly crafted. From the cobbled-together vehicles to the make-shift weapons and clothing, everything in this film feels cracked, rusted, and most importantly, lived in, helping to give hope to a renewed series of Mad Max films that take us deeper into the barren wasteland of 2060 Earth.
Journeying alongside Max through the scorched remains of Earth is is the aforementioned Imperator Furiosa, a child of war that it would be fair to say shares the spotlight with The Road Warrior for the majority of the films running time. Against Hardy‘s mute Max, Theron‘s Furiosa burns with a righteous rage that provides the driving force of the film – as both liberator and warrior, she seeks to free the Immortan’s brides and deliver them to ‘The Green Place’, a promised land hidden amongst the desert. Along the way, we learn more of our central duo not through weighty exposition, but through quick flashes of painful memory that work perfectly to paint a better picture of the characters, without ever breaking from the relentless roar of the action.
And when I say action, I mean action. Not content to simply copy and paste explosions using CGI, Miller paints the scenery with horrific explosions, collisions and general catastrophes using predominantly practical effects, and in doing so creates frantic and visceral stunt sequences that Michael Bay would be wise to take note of. Maniacs waving chainsaws as they scamper across car bonnets? You got it. Motocross bikes soaring across the backs of big-rig tankers as gunshot tears through the sky? No problem. The result is genuinely thrilling, and punctuated by a tribal soundtrack that swirls around the action like a tornado, accentuating the roar of the engines and the gnashing of metal to create a film that is quite simply a feast for your eyes and ears.
I could go on forever picking out every single minutae of the film that makes it contender for movie of the year, but then I would run out of words. All you need to know is this – Mad Max: Fury Road is THE action film of the year, screaming along at a break-neck pace and, luckily for us, taking you along for every gasoline-soaked second of it.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD roars its way onto Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 5th October 2015.
